Bangladesh will host the next year’s ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup to be held from January 22 to February 14
The ICC Board, in its final round meetings of 2015 at the ICC Headquarters in Dubai on Tuesday (Oct 13), confirmed that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will host the next year’s ICC U19 Cricket World Cup from 22 January to February 14, said a ICC media release after the meeting on Tuesday.
As part of this decision, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), working in conjunction with its government, will develop an appropriate security plan to the satisfaction of the ICC’s security advisor, working closely with the security advisors for the other members.
The Board (and its committees) commenced their meetings by paying respects to ICC’s former President, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, who passed away last month.
The other important decisions taken in the ICC Board and committee meetings are:
Women’s Cricket:
The Board has approved changes to the format of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 to be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board. This event determines the best team in the 50-over ODI format.
The eight-team tournament will now be played as a round-robin format with the top four sides progressing to the semi-finals, followed by the final. The change in the format means there will now be a total of 31 matches (compared to 25 matches in 2013), with each side guaranteed a minimum of seven matches during the tournament.
The Board also decided that a second edition of the ICC Women’s Championship would be played post 2017. This tournament has significantly enhanced the standard of women’s cricket with each side guaranteed a minimum of 21 ODIs over a two-year period. The current edition of the Championship also serves as a qualification pathway to the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 with the top four sides qualifying directly to women’s cricket’s most prestigious event.
To encourage attacking play in women’s ODI cricket, the Board noted that the women’s playing conditions should adopt all the changes that were introduced to the men’s playing conditions in June 2015 except the following two which relate to ODI fielding restrictions:
Game and Market Development:
In line with the ICC’s new strategy which aims to assist the development of more competitive teams in international cricket, the Board approved that direct funding available to the Associate and Affiliate Members (AMs) will increase from $125 million in the previous cycle to $208 million for the period from 2016-2023.
The Board also approved the overarching principles of the AMs funding model which will result in an immediate increase to the annual funding pool from $20million in 2015 to $26million in 2016.
Increased Prize Money 2016-2023:
The Board approved an increased allocation of US$ 65 million as the prize money for the top ranked Test sides and for men’s and women’s ICC Events during the period 2016-2023. This represents a 41 per cent increase in the total prize money paid to players compared to the previous eight-year cycle.
In a decision to better reward the best performing Test teams, the Board has doubled the prize money for sides that top the ICC Test Championship table each year at the 1 April cut-off date. As a result, the number-one ranked Test team on 1 April 2016 will receive $1 million, up from $500,000 in 2015.
This prize money is in addition to the Test Cricket Fund of $70 million, which the ICC Board introduced last year to help ensure Test playing sides are able to sustain a home programme of Test cricket through to 2023. The fund will be available from next year to all Test Members except the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The ICC Board meeting, consists of the nominated representatives of each of the 10 full members plus three elected associate member representatives, chaired by ICC chairman Narayanaswami Srinivasan and attended by ICC President and ICC Chief Executive.
